The sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) of civilians by international peacekeepers is a form of post-conflict violence that is pernicious and understudied, but far from inevitable. However, there are very few cross-mission analyses of the phenomenon. This article considers whether the socialization experiences of troops in two environments, the contributing state military and the peacekeeping mission itself, help to explain the observed variation in SEA. Drawing on a dataset of SEA allegations between 2007 and 2014, as well as the first publicly available data from the United Nations that identify the nationalities of alleged perpetrators, this article analyzes the layered nature of socialization through the lens of SEA. Specifically, this article presents evidence that SEA is positively associated with disciplinary breakdowns at the peacekeeping mission’s lower levels of command, and argues that a peacekeeping mission may carry its own norms and socializing processes that either constrain or facilitate the emergence and endurance of SEA.

Since the adoption of UNSCR 1325, more female peacekeepers are participating in peacekeeping missions than ever before. Nevertheless, the current literature on peacekeeping effectiveness is largely gender neutral, discounting the unique role female peacekeepers may play in peacekeeping operations. This article addresses this missing piece in the literature by assessing how female peacekeepers and locals view the role of women in peacekeeping operations. Using interviews and focus groups conducted with peacekeepers in the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and original surveys conducted in Liberian communities, it finds that there is an “access gap” that prevents female peacekeepers from fully contributing to the mission’s operations and therefore prevents the peacekeeping mission from reaching its full potential. The findings have broader implications for how to improve peacekeeping missions’ effectiveness moving forward.

In 2008, the Council of the European Union (EU) adopted a ‘Comprehensive Approach’ that outlines a strategy for securing gender mainstreaming; two years later, the Council introduced a set of indicators to assess its implementation. The EU was responding to the United Nations Security Council’s call for regional institutions to assist in implementing Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, adopted on 31 October 2000, concerning ‘women, peace and security’. This resolution sought to meet the ‘urgent need to mainstream a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations’. Considering that prior exposure to gender issues, resources and well-established relations with civil society and gender advocates are lacking, the adoption of both the Comprehensive Approach and the indicators, as well as the structures and procedures established since then as part of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy, requires some explanation. This article draws on feminist institutionalist approaches to argue that the impetus for change came from individuals and groups within the EU who were involved in external networks, both above and below the supranational level, who seized on institutional idiosyncrasies that also shaped the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in important ways.

Vrajolli, Marigonë. 2018. “Role and Participation of Women in the Establishment and Implementation of International Security Policies.” Academicus: International Scientific Journal 17: 54–61.

Author: Marigonë Vrajolli

Abstract:

Women have long been excluded from peace and security processes, which include disarmament, despite being disproportionately affected by weapons. Emphasizing, the role of women in peace and security processes began to gain meaning only after 2000, when the United Nations Resolution, Resolution 1325 entered into force. In order for women to participate equally in such processes, the resolution emphasizes the necessity of women’s participation as agents of positive change and not as weak and powerless victims. Contributing to a society where women can live freely in harmony without being marginalized.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the different roles that women have in creating security policies. Further, this paper explains the role of women in initiatives, peacekeeping and peace-building. The paper also explains the international mechanisms that promote the involvement of women in peace and security processes.

Peace agreements, seeking to end conflict and establish a road map for the future, have significant effects on women’s lives, yet historically women have been absent from peace processes. This chapter examines obstacles that often limit women’s involvement in peace negotiations, despite the creation of an international framework that supports the inclusion of women in such processes. The chapter reviews the pragmatic opportunities and challenges for women in the pre-negotiation stage, the framework development/substantive stage, and the implementation/renegotiation stage. Among the challenges addressed are issues of access and power within negotiating spaces. The chapter describes instances where women have successfully participated in peace negotiations, and offers three directions for future growth: further involvement of women in negotiations; using a gender perspective in all aspects of the substantive agreement; and developing a long-term commitment to sustaining peace. (Summary from Oxford Handbooks Online)

Anderson, Miriam J. 2017. “Women’s Advocacy Groups in Peace Negotiations.” In Transnational Actors in War and Peace: Militants, Activists, and Corporations in World Politics, edited by David Malet and Miriam J. Anderson, 185–196. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Author: Miriam J. Anderson

Annotation:

Summary:

“This chapter provides some background on women’s peace advocacy groups, women’s rights provisions in peace agreements, and on the global women’s, peace, and security agenda. It then focuses on the role that women activists can play in influencing the outcome of peace negotiations. In offering a portrait of women peace advocates who seek participation in peace processes, it considers how this group of actors is organized, how it interact with other actors, how it communicates both internally and externally, how it influences conflict and peace, and finally how it reflects developments in transnationalism” (Anderson 2017, 186).

Bachelet, Michelle. 2015. “Women as Agents of Peace and Stability: Measuring the Results.” In Women on the Frontlines of Peace and Security, 87–112. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press.

Author: Michelle Bachelet

Annotation:

Summary:

“UNSCR 1325 has many goals, but focuses on two points: addressing the problems women face as victims or survivors of war, and promoting women as agents of peace. More attention has been directed toward protecting women and girls than toward promoting their role in conflict prevention, conflict resolution, and postconflict recovery and peace-building. Ordinary people are now more familiar with the plight of women and girls plight in conflict zones, specifically widespread and sometimes organized sexual violence. More decisive action is needed, but at least after decades of discussing violence against women as a weapon of war, such violence provokes moral revulsion, and most agree that something must be done to address it.

“But protection from violence had long been discussed before UNSCR 1325. The resolution emphasized the importance of women’s participation in peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peace-building. While this has been validated and endorsed many times since the adoption of UNSCR 1325, relatively few people actually know what it entails, why it is important, and what evidence connects it with more durable and stable peace and security. Why do we need quotas for women in parliaments and legislatures? Why do we need women at the peace table?” (Bachelet 2014, 96).

Weiss, Cornelia. 2015. “Barely Begun: The Inclusion of Women as Peacemakers, Peacekeepers, and Peacebuilders in International Law and Practice.” In Promoting Peace through International Law, edited by Cecilia M. Bailliet and Kjetil Mujezinović Larsen, 274–96. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Author: Cornelia Weiss

Abstract:

The chapter analyses the present state of inclusion of women as peacemakers, peacekeepers, and peace-builders in both law and practice. The chapter explores the status and effect of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions that address women peacemakers, peacekeepers, and peace-builders. It investigates the present status of compliance measures and how they can be used. It addresses options concerning ways of influencing practice when the law does not. This chapter argues with conviction that the pursuit of peace is illusory without the inclusion of women as peacemakers, peacekeepers, and peace-builders. This chapter will assist both the scholar and the practitioner in their respective contributions to the pursuit of peace.

In response to women’s frequent marginalization in conflict settings, the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security in 2000. It called for including a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations and for enhancing women’s participation in all aspects of postconflict reconstruction. This article contributes to the empirical literature on the implementation of UNSCR 1325, examining the extent of gender mainstreaming in UN peacekeeping mandates. Situated in a theoretical framework of gradual norm cascades, it hypothesizes that UNSCR 1325 has increased gender content in mandates, but selectively so. Statistical analyses of an original dataset covering all 71 UN peacekeeping operations from 1948 until 2014 reveal that gender-mainstreamed mandates are more likely in conflicts with high levels of sexual violence. In designing gendered peacekeeping mandates, actors thus appear to be responsive to cues about the salience of a very visible, albeit narrow, gender issue emanating from the respective conflict rather than being guided by the universalist norms of women’s participation entrenched in UNSCR 1325.

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) is the most significant international normative framework addressing the gender-specific impacts of conflict on women and girls including protection against sexual and gender-based violence, promoting women’s participation in peace and security and supporting their roles as peace builders in the prevention of conflict. In the decade since 2004 when the UN Secretary- General first called for Women, Peace and Security National Action Plans to implement the 1325 agenda in national-level peace and security institutions and policies, 55 countries have adopted them. This article analyses the global patterns of Women, Peace and Security policy diffusion, especially the effects of conflict, democracy and women in power on the propensity for states to implement Women, Peace and Security National Action Plans. Examining patterns of diffusion enables an assessment of how far the Women, Peace and Security agenda has spread and what the prospects are for the further diffusion of Women, Peace and Security.